Help! I have problems with ghosting on my new RCA TV. I have upgraded all the cables to Monster's and still have the same problem. Any thoughts on some other possible causes?

if you have good cables and a decent TV, chances are it's a problem with a poor source, such as poor cable or bad antenna reception.

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Dave My DVDs(Not updated anymore since DVD Tracker uncooly started charging). My Humble Home Theatre

Generally, better cables (although VERY important) won't always help ghosting in a cable or antenna signal. Ghosting comes from too much signal. This is usually caused by a bad cable picking up excess signal from the air and adding it to the cable signal, or the cable signal being too hot. The problem with changing the coax cable is that you can't usually change all of the lines from the street all the way to your TV. If the problem comes from too much signal, call the cable company, and they can attenuate the signal so it is at the proper level at your set.

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...post game show is brought to you by,......Christ I can't find it. To hell with it!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dfbennett:
if you have good cables and a decent TV, chances are it's a problem with a poor source, such as poor cable or bad antenna reception.

[/Quote}

I also think it is the cable provider (Time Warner Digital). I have tried everything I can do, so I am going to push it off on TW. I should add that it is only certain channels that do this.

Its definitely a problem with too much signal. Try using some splitters to add attenuation to the signal, even if you don't have any more TV's in your hoouse. Or, if you hook up more TV's in your house to the cable line that should help too.

How is your TV hooked up? You should split the cable coming in so one feed goes to the cable box and the other right into the TV.(assuming your TV has multiple inputs)

Mike

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ANDREMIKE:


How is your TV hooked up? You should split the cable coming in so one feed goes to the cable box and the other right into the TV.(assuming your TV has multiple inputs)

Mike<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I have the "main" feed going in to the cable box, then to the VCR, finally in to the TV.
I have been toying with the idea of hooking the cable box directly in to the tv with an S video cable. Any thoughts on that?

1. Have you tried hooking up the cable directly to the TV yet?

2. Is the ghosting occurring on local VHF stations?

Well if you hooked up the S-Video to the TV generally you should get a better picture.(It might fix the ghosting problem) S-video is always better then coax and R G Y(hook up) is better then S-video. There would be 2 problems with doing this.
Does your TV have multiple S-video inputs? If it doesn't then you will not be able to hook up your DVD player(if you have one). You would have to get an S-video switch. Unless your receiver has multiple S-video inputs. How many seperate inputs does your TV have? (S-Video, coax, R G Y, RCA). My Sony TV has three so I can switch between all the different inputs.
The other problem is you will not be able to record from cable by using the S-Video. You have to use the coax from the output of the cable box right into the VCR. If you tell me exactly how many inputs your TV has and tell me about your cable box, stereo, and VCR. I can tell you the best way to hook up your TV.

I hope that helps.
I will be leaving soon so hopefully we can continue this tomorrow.
Mike

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ANDREMIKE:


How is your TV hooked up? You should split the cable coming in so one feed goes to the cable box and the other right into the TV.(assuming your TV has multiple inputs)

Mike<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Especially if your tv has a 2 tuner PIP

A little ghosting is good this time of year http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

I just had Time Warner out and they claimed they could find no problems, I wasn't home to refute this (the wife was). Incedentaly it is the local VHF channels that are "ghosting". Is that significant? I only have one S video input on my TV so I would
have to get an S video switch.

My current setup is:
An RCA 32" TV
Philips DVD
Time Warner Digital Cable box
Sony bookshelf stereo
Older RCA VCR

Does your TV have other inputs? Try running the cable into the TV with your S-video. if that improves the picture then great! Go get a switch!

Well, I had a similar problem, and it was an RF shielding thing. Local air channel 5 (VHF) and cable channel 5 (cable) are the same channel (NBC), but because of poor connections, I was getting the ghost of "off-air 5" on "cable 5". It only occurred on channels that were identical for VHF and cable--3,4,6,8 were okay, but 2,5,7 (CBS,NBC,ABC) had ghosts. In my case, I took a wrench to the cable connections and tightened them, which helped a lot.

Since you just replaced the cables, they're probably okay; tighten the connections and see if that helps. You can also try to insulate the connections, but for me, a quick turn of the threads did the trick.

I had this happen once before, and that time the VCR was the culprit. Apparently, it was old and dying, and I replaced it. So you might also want to bypass the VCR and the cable box to see if they are the problem and replace them if necessary.

Of course, be prepared for the possibility that the intereference is happening before the cable even reaches your home--like if a squirrel ate through the cable to the house (hey, it could happen!). In that case, pester the cable company to fix it, but only if you're sure it's not inside the house.

[This message has been edited by DigIt (edited October 18, 2000).]